Author
Topic: Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt (Read 1514195 times)

Some people think that they are being great salespeople simply by bludgeoning you unmercifully to Buy! Buy! Buy!

When I set up my first apartment, I went to a well-known furniture store, to get a bed. I explained I had X dollars, and wanted whatever was available at that price. The salesman never once showed me anything at that range, insisting that I "owed myself" a bed that started at 4X instead. Apparently, he clued in that I needed a bed right away - but not that I was not going to go above my stated price.

So, I walked out, went to the store next door, and a pleasant man sold me a serviceable bed for X dollars. I've never ever bought anything at the first store, just because of that one experience.

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

I have a conversation with customers of mine all the time, and every time it makes my brain hurt. It usually goes something like:

Customer - "You sent me a letter saying I was denied! Why did you do that?"Me - If you look at the letter, there's a section where we explain why we denied you. In this case it looks like it was because we didn't get any information to extend your claim. We called you and your doctor, and nothing was sent to us"Customer - "How is that my fault? I need you to reopen this!"Me - "I'm sorry, we need this specific information before we can consider reopening it. If you send this in, we'll look at everything again"Customer - "Well, I didn't know you were going to deny me or I would have sent it to you. Can you reopen it now that you know I'll send it in?"Me - "In the letters we send you, we tell you what the deadline is. It also looks like we talked to you on X date and told you we needed the information by Y date or it would be closed"Customer - "Well, I don't read your letters, so I didn't know."

And that's always where my brain breaks down. Why do people think that phrases like "I didn't know" or "I didn't read that part" or "I shouldn't have to remember that" are a good defense? With the litigious society we live in, I read *everything* that comes my way. I read my cell phone contract, I read the terms and conditions for my credit cards, I even read the riders for my home insurance! I have such a hard time with the idea that, if you didn't take the initiative to read the information sent to you, that the information shouldn't apply to you.

I got to watch my DS brain start hurting while listening to his sister try to explain why she loves cheese toast (piece of bread topped with a slice of cheese and put in toaster oven until the cheese melts and the bread is slightly toasted) but thinks a grilled cheese sandwich is disgusting.

I got to watch my DS brain start hurting while listening to his sister try to explain why she loves cheese toast (piece of bread topped with a slice of cheese and put in toaster oven until the cheese melts and the bread is slightly toasted) but thinks a grilled cheese sandwich is disgusting.

Lol, it's probably the butter or margarine used in grilled cheese that makes it gross to her. Plain bread with a piece of cheese in the toaster oven is probably just different enough tasting. In fact, it sounds pretty good!

I have a conversation with customers of mine all the time, and every time it makes my brain hurt. It usually goes something like:

Customer - "You sent me a letter saying I was denied! Why did you do that?"Me - If you look at the letter, there's a section where we explain why we denied you. In this case it looks like it was because we didn't get any information to extend your claim. We called you and your doctor, and nothing was sent to us"Customer - "How is that my fault? I need you to reopen this!"Me - "I'm sorry, we need this specific information before we can consider reopening it. If you send this in, we'll look at everything again"Customer - "Well, I didn't know you were going to deny me or I would have sent it to you. Can you reopen it now that you know I'll send it in?"Me - "In the letters we send you, we tell you what the deadline is. It also looks like we talked to you on X date and told you we needed the information by Y date or it would be closed"Customer - "Well, I don't read your letters, so I didn't know."

And that's always where my brain breaks down. Why do people think that phrases like "I didn't know" or "I didn't read that part" or "I shouldn't have to remember that" are a good defense? With the litigious society we live in, I read *everything* that comes my way. I read my cell phone contract, I read the terms and conditions for my credit cards, I even read the riders for my home insurance! I have such a hard time with the idea that, if you didn't take the initiative to read the information sent to you, that the information shouldn't apply to you.

Before I worked deposit operations, I worked in loans and lines. This line got me all the time. Bankers would call us about fees or closed lines or whatever, and I would look up the account and say something to the effect of "well, on X date we sent the customer a statement showing the late fee, then on Y date we sent a letter warning that we would restrict the line if it wasn't paid by Z date." Or, "On X date we sent a letter stating that we were closing down the line for Y reason." There's a million variations on that theme. Invariably, the customer would respond with "Well, I don't read my statements, how should I know!". Um, yeah...what do you want us to do? Send a personal messenger?

During my time in deposit operations, my employer took over another large bank. Variations on the same theme occurred with letters regarding events that would happen in reference to the conversion. Same response. Ugh.

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Some people lift weights. I lift measures. It's a far more esoteric workout. - (Quoted from a personal friend)

I got to watch my DS brain start hurting while listening to his sister try to explain why she loves cheese toast (piece of bread topped with a slice of cheese and put in toaster oven until the cheese melts and the bread is slightly toasted) but thinks a grilled cheese sandwich is disgusting.

Lol, it's probably the butter or margarine used in grilled cheese that makes it gross to her. Plain bread with a piece of cheese in the toaster oven is probably just different enough tasting. In fact, it sounds pretty good!

Pod - I like what you call cheese toast, but grilled cheese made with butter or worse margarine upsets my stomach.

So he's looking at the boxes with their neat labels and reading them off to himself. Something prompts him to ask "What's 'chain piecing'?" I explain that it means running one set of quilt pieces through the sewing machine and immediately following it with another pair, rather than stopping, pulling it out and cutting the threads. It's faster, doesn't waste thread, and keeps the needle from being unthreaded. You end up with a long chain of pieces, which you then cut apart.

The brain-breaker: "But how do you tie the threads together to keep the seam from unraveling, if all you have is a couple of stitches between each one?"

And I guess I made his head hurt too, because I tried to explain that you don't need to do anything like that and he didn't believe me.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Common sense is not a gift, but a curse. Because thenyou have to deal with all the people who don't have it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...."

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

After I watched "The Hobbit" I really wasn't sure where they ripped it off from. Certainly not the book...

Are you saying the spider wasn't in there in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings? It's been decades since I read them, but I'm pretty sure Shelob WAS in there.... Am I nuts, or confused?

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Double MIL now; not yet a Grandma. Owner of Lard Butt Noelle, kitteh extraordinaire! True fact: Eggs can be just as hard to unload as zucchini!

DFIL has been making my brain hurt for a week. He was notified last Monday that he is being laid off. He immediately started looking for another position, and we are helping him network at his request. He is at least 40 years older than most of the people he is going to be competing for positions with.

DFIL works in a very specialized computer software and hardware line, and will need to have access to email instantly so he can respond within minutes. He doesn't have a smart phone, or data on his older phone. He doesn't have a tablet or iPad or a laptop, because he has been using the laptop provided by his company. The fact that the laptop is not coming home with him hasn't come to mind yet.

During our conversation at lunch today, I asked him how he was going to check email when he wasn't home after his separation date. We would loan him our tablet during his transition time, but he doesn't seem to be concerned.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...."

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

After I watched "The Hobbit" I really wasn't sure where they ripped it off from. Certainly not the book...

Are you saying the spider wasn't in there in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings? It's been decades since I read them, but I'm pretty sure Shelob WAS in there.... Am I nuts, or confused?

Well, Mirkwood had spiders in it in the Hobbit book, and then yeah, there's Shelob in LOTR. There are definitely spiders in Tolkien.

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...."

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

After I watched "The Hobbit" I really wasn't sure where they ripped it off from. Certainly not the book...

Are you saying the spider wasn't in there in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings? It's been decades since I read them, but I'm pretty sure Shelob WAS in there.... Am I nuts, or confused?

Well, Mirkwood had spiders in it in the Hobbit book, and then yeah, there's Shelob in LOTR. There are definitely spiders in Tolkien.

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...."

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

After I watched "The Hobbit" I really wasn't sure where they ripped it off from. Certainly not the book...

Are you saying the spider wasn't in there in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings? It's been decades since I read them, but I'm pretty sure Shelob WAS in there.... Am I nuts, or confused?

Well, Mirkwood had spiders in it in the Hobbit book, and then yeah, there's Shelob in LOTR. There are definitely spiders in Tolkien.

It was a joke...

I assumed so too, I guess the "joke" part is meant to be something along the lines of "I thought the Hobbit movie was so bad that it wasn't even based on anything Tolkein wrote". Right? However, I can see why people might assume it was a serious part of the dialogue and not get the underlying sarcasm of the poster. I picked up on that one just because I happen to be a big Tolkein fan and I have acquaintances who like to make similar disparaging remarks about the film adaptations (because converting a book into film medium is *so* easy of course ).

For the record, I want to note that I was kind of "taken in" by the buffalo wings story. To be fair, I wasn't exactly over-thinking it or paying attention to the details, because it's not a topic I have any particular concern about. I basically thought they were saying that there was originally a dish made of some form of buffalo that was referred to as "wings", and somebody then created a chicken wing dish based on that. (So a relatively plausible story). I had no idea, and have none still, what the roosevelt reference meant so it in no way indicated to me that the story was implausible. Of course by the time I read the post the edit had been made indicating it was a joke, so I got to the end and went "Oh ok, it's an urban legend" and moved on.

For the record, I'm not typically a gullible person. I'm a regular on Snopes, I don't "like" or "share" any of those absurd FB posts and I don't send on forward emails (unless I can verify their accuracy, which so far as never happened!). I'm also a degree educated and fairly intelligent person, and come from a family who joke around a lot. Anyway I just wanted to put it out there that sometimes jokes aren't as obvious as they might seem. In the context of this thread I wouldn't be expecting somebody to deliberately provide misinformation, so although I don't believe everything I read on the internet nor would I automatically assume that a poster was pulling my leg. So I do think being clear when joking is worthwhile in this context. Sorry if this hurts anybody's brains!

My friend was telling me this one. She and her husband had seen The Hobbit on a date night. I'd seen it twice already so we started talking about it.

She said her brother had seen it too. He told her all about it in a rant about how they had just "ripped off LOTR" and how it was the "exact same story" and "how could they get away with blatant copyright." Apparently the fact that some of the same actors were in it and all the hinting toward the events of LOTR wasn't enough to clue him. She gently explained to him that the books had the same author and that The Hobbit was something of a prequel to LOTR. "Ohhhhh...."

I remember coming out of Fellowship of the Ring and hearing a girl behind me ranting about the "lousy ending". When her companion explained it was a trilogy, she snorted, "So, they're trying to rip off Star Wars, are they?"

I heard someone rant after Return of the King that they just "copied the spider from Harry Potter. LAME!"

After I watched "The Hobbit" I really wasn't sure where they ripped it off from. Certainly not the book...

Are you saying the spider wasn't in there in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings? It's been decades since I read them, but I'm pretty sure Shelob WAS in there.... Am I nuts, or confused?

Well, Mirkwood had spiders in it in the Hobbit book, and then yeah, there's Shelob in LOTR. There are definitely spiders in Tolkien.

It was a joke...

I assumed so too, I guess the "joke" part is meant to be something along the lines of "I thought the Hobbit movie was so bad that it wasn't even based on anything Tolkein wrote". Right? However, I can see why people might assume it was a serious part of the dialogue and not get the underlying sarcasm of the poster. I picked up on that one just because I happen to be a big Tolkein fan and I have acquaintances who like to make similar disparaging remarks about the film adaptations (because converting a book into film medium is *so* easy of course ).

For the record, I want to note that I was kind of "taken in" by the buffalo wings story. To be fair, I wasn't exactly over-thinking it or paying attention to the details, because it's not a topic I have any particular concern about. I basically thought they were saying that there was originally a dish made of some form of buffalo that was referred to as "wings", and somebody then created a chicken wing dish based on that. (So a relatively plausible story). I had no idea, and have none still, what the roosevelt reference meant so it in no way indicated to me that the story was implausible. Of course by the time I read the post the edit had been made indicating it was a joke, so I got to the end and went "Oh ok, it's an urban legend" and moved on.

For the record, I'm not typically a gullible person. I'm a regular on Snopes, I don't "like" or "share" any of those absurd FB posts and I don't send on forward emails (unless I can verify their accuracy, which so far as never happened!). I'm also a degree educated and fairly intelligent person, and come from a family who joke around a lot. Anyway I just wanted to put it out there that sometimes jokes aren't as obvious as they might seem. In the context of this thread I wouldn't be expecting somebody to deliberately provide misinformation, so although I don't believe everything I read on the internet nor would I automatically assume that a poster was pulling my leg. So I do think being clear when joking is worthwhile in this context. Sorry if this hurts anybody's brains!

I would imagine that a winking smiley would indicate that there's something not very serious going on. I'm a Tolkien fan too and I have to say that it breaks my brain a little when his fans habitually misspell his name. It seems like an easy name to me so it seems strange that someone can be a big fan without actually knowing his name.

But on that note I hurt my own brain too. I've started mistyping words, in an autocorrect type of way. Recently I was writing the word "rising" and instead wrote raisin. I don't know if I should be worried.